The present invention relates to improvements in the making of wrapped drinking or sipping straws, and more particularly to improvements in the methods of and apparatus for confining drinking of sipping straws (hereinafter called sipping straws) in tubular envelopes of paper or the like.
It is well known to confine sipping straws in suitable elongated tubular envelopes of thin paper or the like. As a rule, conventional apparatus for the making and wrapping of sipping straws comprise an extruder that turns out a continuous tube which is normally made of a suitable plastic material (e.g., a transparent or translucent plastic material) and is caused to pass through a cutter. The latter repeatedly severs the leader of the tube to thus convert it into a file or row of discrete sections (hereinafter called straws) of desired length. The thus obtained straws are thereupon wrapped into envelopes in such a way that each envelope exhibits a longitudinally extending flap or fin and is closed at the ends. The making of fins and closing at the ends is accomplished by resorting to suitable knurling tools which interlace overlapping portions of the respective envelopes. Such knurling necessarily involves the making of rather pronounced fins which interfere with predictable confinement of wrapped sipping straws in cardboard boxes or other types of containers. Furthermore, the wrapping operation does not always result in the making of airtight seals and the flaps detract from the appearance of the ultimate products.
The maximum output of presently known apparatus for wrapping sipping straws is in the range of between about 600 and 1000 per minute. On the other hand, an extruder can turn out 2000 or even more straws per minute. Thus, the extruder must operate at less than full capacity due to the lesser output of the wrapping apparatus.
Another drawback of presently known and utilized apparatus for making and wrapping sipping straws is that their requirements for wrapping paper or other suitable wrapping material greatly exceed the minimal requirements which must be satisfied in order to adequately confine and preferably seal or substantially seal an individual straw in a tubular envelope. The disparity between the required quantities of wrapping material and the number of wrapped sipping straws which are turned out per unit of time increases with increasing lengths of the straws.
In addition, the rather limited capacity of conventional straw wrapping or draping apparatus renders it necessary to increase the number of extruding, wrapping and cartoning machines which, in turn, contributes significantly to the overall cost and necessitates the utilization of additional floor space as well as the services of additional attendants.